Church seeks manager for restitution billions

Photo: Barbora Kmentová
The Czech Catholic Church has taken a first step towards managing the tens
of billions of crowns and assets that should be heading its way following
the restitution settlement with the state. The church has chosen one of the
country’s leading asset management companies, ČSOB Asset Management,
from 12 contenders to set up an investment fund which will channel cash to
national and local diocese projects. The fund should set up this year with
expectations that it will quickly have around 1 billion crowns to play
with.

ČEZ seeks massive tax refund for emissions allowance tax

Photo: Alena Palečková
Electricity giant ČEZ has provided the government with an early headache
by calling for a massive tax refund. ČEZ argues that Czech taxes on
greenhouse gas emissions permits awarded to it by the European Commission
in 2011 and 2012 were illegal and 5.3 billion crowns should be handed back.
The company says it has to make the demand in order to protect
shareholders’ interests. The Czech state has an almost 75% stake in ČEZ
with the new coalition government mulling the possibility of sectoral taxes
on big earners such as banks and power companies.

More tourists, less nights

Photo: CzechTourism
Overall tourist numbers were up by 1.6% in the Czech Republic in 2013
although the length of average stays continued to get shorter. Foreign
tourist numbers climbed by 2.0% with their overnight stays slightly up.
Local Czech tourists numbers climbed 1.2% but they tended to significantly
cut short their stays. Czech and foreign tourists on average spend almost
three nights on trips.

Newspapers find silver lining in 2013 figures

Photo: archive of Radio Prague
Czech newspapers appear to have put a gloomy year behind them in 2013.
Print runs of the six biggest selling national newspapers fell across the
board last year according to an annual survey. The three top selling
dailies were tabloid Blesk, Mladá Fronta Dnes, and Právo. Some newspapers
themselves have preferred to put a more positive spin on the figures by
saying that their readership stabilized with, apparently, fewer copies
of individual papers going through more hands.

Distilleries fight ‘big brother’ surveillance plans

Photo: Filip Jandourek
Distilleries are protesting instructions from the customs and excise
inspectorate to install cameras at their plants so that they can keep an
artificial eye on their operations. The companies say costs will be
prohibitive and add that demands for data storage could collapse their
internal information networks. They are new seeking urgent talks to cushion
the blow. The demands are one result of the methanol scandal where sales of
bootleg spirits resulted in more than 40 deaths.